Brookwood, Annistown Educators Become Semifinalists for Teacher of the Year

This article was originally posted Sept. 30, 2013 at 4:44 p.m.

Two teachers in Snellville have been selected to be semifinalists for the Teacher of the Year honor for Gwinnett County Public Schools. 

A committee from GCPS recently narrowed down the list of Gwinnett’s top educators on the road to be named the 2014 Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year. The committee announced the names of the 26 semifinalists to be considered for the system’s top honor.

The group of 15 elementary, six middle, and five high school teachers was selected from the initial list of 130 local school Teachers of the Year who were nominated by their colleagues at their local schools. 

This year’s Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year semifinalists in Snellville are:

• Marcus Sowcik of Annistown Elementary--Special Education Teacher, Autism (Grades K-2)
• Ashley Allgood of Brookwood High--Latin Teacher (Grades 9-12)

The GCPS committee—made up of teachers, central office personnel, and administrators—will now consider the semifinalists’ applications and answers to a set of additional questions in order to determine six finalists. Committee members will then make site visits to the classrooms of the group of finalists and conduct thorough interviews with each educator.

During the classroom visit, the committee members will look for original teaching methods, study the teacher’s teaching philosophy, review special class projects the teacher has initiated, and consider the influence the teacher has had on the teaching practices of his/her colleagues. They also will review each teacher’s educational degrees and civic activities.

Based on their findings, committee members will select an elementary, middle, and a high school Teacher of the Year. They will be announced during the banquet. One of these three “level winners” will be named Gwinnett’s 2014 Teacher of the Year.

The annual Teacher of the Year banquet will be held Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth. The celebration is possible thanks to the support of several area companies. Those sponsors include Coca Cola Refreshments; Emtec; EyeMed Vision Care; Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation, Fund Inc.; Peach State Federal Credit Union; Hayes Chrysler Dodge Jeep; Herff Jones; IBM; Kemper Select; Lifetouch School Photography and Yearbooks; MedCom; MetLife; Mellon Global Securities Services; J. Smith Lanier; and VALIC.

Once named, the 2014 Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year will compete to become Georgia’s Teacher of the Year.

-From Gwinnett County Public Schools